Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud

Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud (20 April 1970-) was the leader of the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Biography
Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud was born on 20 April 1970 in Meftah, Algeria, and gained a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Blida. In 1996, he joined the insurgency in Algeria and briefly fought in the Afghan Civil War before returning to Algeria to fight against the government. In 2004 he succeeded Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader Nabil Sahraoui as the new leader of the group and joined forces with al-Qaeda in 2006. He eventually distanced himself from al-Qaeda by opposing the destruction of shrines in Mali and getting furious at the too-quick implementation of Islamic law, and he ousted Mokhtar Belmokhtar from the group because of "fractious behavior".